Understand

Across three episodes, author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life.
Episode two asks what it means to grow up neurodivergent in a school system under strain. For some children, school can be a place of learning, friendship and support. For others, it can become overwhelming: a world of sensory overload, social confusion, anxiety, burnout and absence.
Through the experiences of children, parents, educators and clinicians, the programme considers what happens when a child is labelled difficult, disruptive or unable to cope – and what changes when adults begin to see distress differently.
From autism and ADHD to school avoidance, SEND provision, sensory integration and the pressure on families and teachers, it asks how education might better meet children where they are.
Featuring contributions from Matthew Punter, Labeebah Islaam, SENDcos Georgina Smith and Stewart Dudgeon, clinical psychologist Naomi Fisher and Occupational Therapist Charlie Hobbs.
Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski

Author and mental health academic Nathan Filer explores neurodivergence: what it means, how children live with it, and how adults navigate its impact in work, relationships and everyday life.
Episode one begins with the language of difference: as terms like neurodivergent and neurotypical have moved from activist and specialist spaces into everyday life, they have brought comfort, identity and community, but also confusion.
Through lived experience and expert insight, the programme travels from autism and ADHD to self-diagnosis, TikTok, rejection sensitivity and the limits of labels.
It asks not only what we call one another, but how we listen, understand and care.
Featuring contributions from Labeebah Islaam, academic psychologist Lucy Foulkes, clinical psychologist Naomi Fisher and Alex Partridge, author of Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Living and Loving with Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria.
Writer and presenter: Nathan Filer
Producer: Eliza Lomas
Assistant Producer: Robbie Wojciechowski
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Series Development: Nathan Filer, Eliza Lomas, Robbie Wojciechowski

Nathan Filer explores the complex and shifting terrain of neurodiversity, and what it means to be different. From neurodivergence in childhood, to navigating adulthood.

Facing climate fatigue and denial, a backlash against green policy, and increasingly urgent warnings from scientists, the green movement is shifting into a new era.
Two environmentally-minded politicians spell out their opposing visions for where the movement should go next.
Zack Polanski is the leader of the Green Party, preaching a message of ‘eco-populism’. John Gummer is a Conservative Lord and former head of the Climate Change Committee; he thinks the most powerful tool to make change is the free market.
What is the future of the green movement?
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt
Series Producer: Ellie House
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound Design and Mix: James Beard
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Archive:
Doechii at Glastonbury, Glastonbury and Doechii filmed by BBC, 28/6/2025
Green Party Hustings at Glastonbury Speakers Forum, The Green Gathering, filmed by Zoe Broughton, 8/7/2025
Margaret Thatcher speech to the United Nations General Assembly, C-SPAN, 8/11/1989

Just Stop Oil is “hanging up the hi vis” after three years of throwing soup at paintings, interrupting theatre performances, and blocking roads. It’s 2025. They’ve been racking up arrests - and opponents - and now, the UK government has passed a string of new laws cracking down on disruptive protest.
They say they’ve achieved their aims - a ban on new oil and gas licenses - but were they policed to extinction? With their hardcore campaigning for the climate, did these activists prompt a change in law that made all green activism harder?
Presenter: Justin Rowlatt
Producer: Alix Pickles
Series Producer: Ellie House
Editor: Matt Willis
Sound Design and Mix: James Beard
Production Coordinators: Maria Ogundele, Brenda Brown, Sabine Schereck
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Archive:
‘Just Stop Oil is Hanging up the Hi Vis’, Just Stop Oil, 27/3/2025
Just Stop Oil Louise M25 protest, Just Stop Oil, 7/11/2022
Lord Deben on Just Stop Oil, ITV Robert Peston, 5/7/2023
Rupert Read talking about The Climate Majority Project, Some Dare Call It Conspiracy podcast, 24/4/2024